


Love may triumph in the books, but not here

by theflyingdalek



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Emotional Manipulation, M/M, Richard Hendricks is not a good person, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 11:04:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17548475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theflyingdalek/pseuds/theflyingdalek
Summary: It only took a moment for Richard's understanding of the world to reconfigure to the thought that Jared could say no to him, and when it did, it turned out that Richard was a shittier person than he thought he was.





	Love may triumph in the books, but not here

It took almost no time for Jared to become a constant in Richard’s life. It seemed like from the moment they met, Jared was always there, waving through the window, murmuring strategy at his shoulder, sleeping in the garage. 

He was always there, and he always believed in Richard, even at the points when everyone (including Richard) knew that he was a shitty bet. There was nothing Jared wouldn’t do for him, until there was, and then it felt as if the oxygen had been sucked out of his lungs. Like the ground had fallen away from under his feet. 

_I will not help you on this mission,_ Jared had said. 

Richard remembered spitting out the word _No?_ as if someone had stolen something from him, as if he was somehow entitled to the good faith that Jared always so freely doled out. 

It only took a moment for his understanding of the world to reconfigure to the thought that Jared could say no to him, and when it did, it turned out that Richard was a shittier person than he had thought. 

Because the moment after he heard “no,” he immediately began to push and manipulate and tear at the old wounds that Jared had always bared to him so trustingly. Richard took it a step too far— a mile too far, and Jared left. And that was fair, sure. Why not get out while you can? 

But then Richard snapped back into some semblance of reality, said his apologies, and Jared came back. And somehow this information was so much more dangerous than knowing that Jared would always believe in him. Because now Richard knew that no matter what he did, all he had to do was frown, say sorry, and Jared would forgive him. 

Because apparently Jared didn’t need him to be a good person, Jared only needed to _believe_ that he was a good person. 

And ever since _that_ new information had sunk in, all Richard could think about was how far could he could go and still get away with it. Because here’s the thing that most people don't know or guess about Richard. Richard _craves power_. For someone who always had so little of it, someone so fucking far down the food chain, he feeds off of it. And having someone in his back pocket like Jared is intoxicating. 

Richard wonders if this was how it happened for Gavin Belson. That it all started as one friend who wanted to give him the moon and that dedication woke something inside of him and he was dragged down the rabbit hole of want until he ended up throwing sloths down the stairs and forcing his employees to ask him permission to use the bathroom at work. 

Now Richard gets to revel in the information that, to Jared, he is everything. He knows that Jared would leave an orgy with God knows how many women to come rescue Richard from walking home and having to face Bob Melcher on his own. He knows that Jared would beat assailants off Richard with his own shoe, and it makes Richard want more and more and more. 

So when they’re out at a bar, and Jared is drinking a cranberry seltzer while some… some random (read: annoyingly handsome) marketing specialist from the rideshare company next door is hitting on him, Richard knows that all he has to do is go over and put his hand on Jared’s shoulder, mention he might need some help on some stupid thing, or that his stomach hurts, or that he just wants to chat, and Jared would drop this guy in a moment and come rushing to Richard’s aid. 

_You’re a shitty person. A shitty person and a shitty friend,_ that little voice in Richard’s head says. But Richard ignores it. He knows he’s a shitty person and a shitty friend. He knows that Jared should be allowed to fuck whoever he wants to, and that Richard isn’t even gay anyway, but here’s another thing about Richard—he does _not_ like to share. 

And if that means that he has to seduce his COO to get at that very last piece of his soul, then that’s what it takes. 

It doesn’t take a long time to train Jared into not picking people up from bars anymore. It really only takes a disappointed look, an offhand comment each time he brings someone home—Jared was always quick to pick up on what was expected of him. Luckily, Richard isn’t awful and good behavior deserves its own reward. This bit only costs a kiss here and an (admittedly awkward) fumble in the closet there. No skin off Richard’s back, and Jared is back to looking at him and only him. 

Gilfoyle and Dinesh catch on pretty quickly (or more like accidentally walk in on them in the act), and Dinesh makes a few jokes about gay love before Gilfoyle takes him aside and talks to him about it. Gilfoyle, who somehow always seems to know exactly what’s going on and can pinpoint the shitty darkness of it. He always said he delighted in this sort of thing, but he looks at Richard differently now. Less like he’s a fuckup and more like he’s some sort of ticking time bomb. Ready to blow up and consume everything around him. But fuck him and his constantly sliding moral scale. Richard, for the first time in his life, is actually winning, and nothing is going to stop him now. 

The days begin to blur together. One day they’re moving into Hooli’s emptied out corpse and the next he’s on the cover of Wired Magazine. The messiah of the free internet. They’re no longer the new kids on the block— they’re the goliaths, 

Sure, now Richard has a team of assistants and VPs and even fans, but none of them look at him like Jared does. He’s also got a growing list of enemies, and the list of people he can trust is getting shorter. Every week there seems to be some new upstart ready to take him down and destroy everything he's built. Richard takes them down one by one with a ruthlessness he is beginning to enjoy. But he isn’t worried that he’s going to end up in a mansion all alone like Gavin Belson after Hooli dumped him for the third and final time. He doesn’t have to. 

The ring, when he slips it onto Jared finger, feels more like a shackle than a promise. And Jared, poor Jared, accepts it with a smile and a tear in his eye. 

**Author's Note:**

> Forgive me. Richard Hendricks is my favorite, and he is also slowly become a horrible person. And poor, poor Jared. 
> 
> Title from a poem by W.H. Auden


End file.
